AfterDawn: News

Yesterday P2P software developer KaZaA announced that it has sold its website, software, program code, FastTrack license and trademarks to an Australian company called Sharman Networks.

KaZaA suspended its software downloads last week, but yesterday, shortly after the announcement, the software was again available for download -- and according to KaZaA's software download counter, the P2P client was downloaded 2 times every second in yesterday afternoon :-)



KaZaA suspended distribution of its P2P client last week, due to an on-going legal battle with Dutch recording industry associations. Buma/Stemra, a Dutch recording industry association, sued KaZaA last year, and Dutch court ordered KaZaA to filter out illegal files from its system. The problem with the ruling was that KaZaA is a non-centralized network that cannot be controlled.

KaZaA's main owners are the same people who also own FastTrack, the company who has developed the network-architecture behind KaZaA, Morpheus and Grokster.

Both Sharman Networks and KaZaA declined to give comments about the deal or disclose any financial details.


Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 22 Jan 2002 2:49